MY STUDENTS WORK

This week I gave the second last class for term one, 2012 to my students. I hold classes in a community centre in  the city of Geelong. We use the 'art classroom' which is a fairly large space. Because the walls are coloured and there are some notice boards on them we place use a large white board as a back-drop when I give correction to the students and to photograph the works. 

The class is a mixed one with some students working on the first half of the curriculum and other, advanced students, who have completed the Sogetsu curriculum. For these students I create a term program with different exercises each week. This program includes, among others, seasonally relevant exercises, work in preparation for exhibitions, work for particular settings and others using combined exercises from the Sogetsu curriculum books 3 and 4.

The first two pictures are nageire 'variations' by beginning students, Sayuri Gilmore and then Wendy Marshall. 

I set the advanced students the exercise of 'emphasising water - using a glass vase'. The pictures below were taken after 'correction'. The first work was made by Maureen Duffy, she has used the Australian Fire-wheel Tree (Stenocarpus Sinatus)

in a trough shaped vase. My correction was to raise the level of the water to the top of the trough and to remove a small side branch that was in between the two larger branches on the left.

The second work is by Christine Denmead. The 'correction' involved separating the two vases and adding the middle branch that joins them to improve the space within the work.

The third work is by Ellie Welkamp. The 'correction' was to raise the level of the water and mass the material in the bowl. This was necessary to stabilise the work and created a contrast between the two designs below and above the water.

The fourth work is by Nola Bird. This work initially only contained the material below the water level and was too minimal considering the size of the very large vase. So, we added the wire and flower above the surface of the water.

I was very pleased with the work of my students and it is always a pleasure at the end of the class to consider the wonderful range of expression in the room even when the students are doing he same exercise.

Greetings from Christopher

16th March 2012